1 662 



THE PERCHING BIRDS 



uniform olive brown, the eyestripe and cheeks being white, while the chin and 

 throat are glossy scarlet, and the breast ash gray shading into buffy gray. 



The nightingale (E. lusdnia} is celebrated in Western Europe as an 

 incomparable songster, and has from all times enjoyed just reputation 

 for the perfection of its vocal powers. Wintering in Africa, it reaches its summer 

 home in the British Isles about the thirteenth of April, the males being the first to 

 arrive. Its range in the British Isles is somewhat circumscribed, and it does not 

 breed north of Yorkshire. The nest is a loose structure of stems of grass and dry 

 leaves, generally raised a little from the ground by a deposit of dead twigs, and 

 screened from observation by a profusion of wild brambles or a crop of stinging 

 nettles; the eggs being uniform olive brown or coffee colored. The female, though 



shy, is much devoted to her charge, and 

 will allow a stranger to stand close 

 beside her without exhibiting her agita- 

 tion further than by a slight nervous 

 movement of the head which only 

 enables him to obtain a better view of 

 the little russet bird, her dark eye 

 beaming out of its whitish orbit. The 

 nightingale is easily trapped, and was 

 formerly an object of eager pursuit 

 among bird catchers, who used to imi- 

 tate the cry of the bird in order to lead 

 it up to the trap which they had pre- 

 pared for it, baited with a live insect. 

 One bird catcher informed us that he 

 once caught two male nightingales in 

 this manner in less than ten minutes; 



this occurred, of course, in a locality where nightingales were plentiful, and upon 

 the first arrival of the males. When the nightingale has hatched her young both 

 parents become absorbed in catering for their progeny. The song is chiefly heard 

 during the night, simply because other birds are then comparatively silent, but the 

 nightingale sings with great power even during the middle of the day. The male 

 has the upper parts russet brown shading into chestnut on the upper tail coverts 

 and tail; the lower parts being buffish white shading into grayish white on the 

 breast and flanks. 



In the east of Europe the English nightingale is replaced by a 

 "VT.*" . . somewhat larger bird (E. philomela), which has a distinct song, 

 differing from that of its congener in its greater volume and inferior 

 perfection. It breeds generally in thickets in the neighborhood of water, and 

 builds a similar nest to that of the well-known bird. The plumage of the eastern 

 nightingale differs from that of the common species in being of a more olive brown, 

 especially on the upper tail coverts, in having a more pointed wing, a smaller 

 bastard primary, and in being slightly spotted or streaked on the breast with gray. 

 A third species is the Persian nightingale (E. golzi). 



THE NIGHTINGALE. 



Eastern 



